Panel with a Griffin, 1250–1300
Byzantine; Possibly from Greece or the Balkans
Marble; 23 1/2 x 20 1/2 x 2 9/16 in. (59.7 x 52.1 x 6.7 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Purchase, Rogers Fund and Jeannette and Jonathan Rosen Gift, 2000 (2000.81)

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In 1095, Pope Urban II rallied western European knights to aid the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos against the Muslim occupiers of Jerusalem and to regain the Holy Land. The Crusades greatly increased interaction between East and West. In 1204, the Fourth Crusade embarked for Palestine from Venice, but was diverted at Constantinople. The Crusaders plundered the Byzantine city and some of the most prized Byzantine artistic treasures and the most famous of Constantinople's Christian relics were brought to western Europe. The Latin Empire established in Constantinople lasted until 1261, when a new Byzantine emperor, Michael VIII Palaiologos emerged from exile and recovered Constantinople, reestablishing the empire on a much reduced scale. This was one year after Marco's alert father and uncle decided to leave the city in search of better prospects in Mongol territory.